LONDON — Britain' Sarah Storey Saturday clinched the women's C4/5 500m time-trial for her second gold of the Paralympics and the ninth of her Games career, as her husband had a part to play in another victory. The 33-year-old, who won five swimming golds before switching to cycling, won in a new personal best of 36.997secs, with Jennifer Schuble of the US in silver and Ruan Jianping of China taking bronze. Storey's husband, Barney, 34, had earlier guided Neil Fachie to gold in the men's blind and visually impaired 1km time-trial in a new world record time of 1min 01.351secs. Spain's Jose Enrique Porto and Jose Antonio Villanueva took silver while Rinne Oost and Patrick Bos, of the Netherlands, won bronze. In the mens' C4 individual pursuit over 4km, Carol-Eduard Novak of Romania, a silver medalist in Beijing, clocked 4min 42.000secs to take gold from the Czech Republic's defending champion Jiri Jezek, while Britain's Jody Cundy took bronze. Cundy's medal came a day after he reacted angrily to being disqualified in his favored event the C4 1km individual pursuit, at which he had been unbeaten since 2006. But he said the experience — and the 6,000-strong crowd — had spurred him on as he took the race from Colombia's Diego German Duenas Gomez. In the men's C5 equivalent, Michael Gallagher gave Australia another medal, beating Britain's Jon-Allan Butterworth into silver, with Lui Xinyang taking bronze. China also got another cycling gold in the shape of He Yin, who took the women's C1-2-3 500m time-trial from Dutch rider Alyda Norbruis and Australia's Jayme Paris. Britis equestrian Lee Pearson, meanwhile, was beaten to a Paralympic title for the first time as he narrowly missed out on joining the select band of Paralympians with 10 gold medals. The flamboyant 38-year-old, who won a clean sweep of three medals at each of the last three Games, was edged into the silver position by Australia's Joann Formosa in the Grade Ib individual championship test dressage. Formosa, riding stallion Worldwide PB on her Paralympics debut, won the London 2012 title with a score of 75.826 percent at Greenwich Park. Pearson, the most successful paralympic equestrian, riding his gelding Gentleman, scored 75.391 percent, while Pepo Puch of Austria — a former Olympic equestrian — on the mare Fine Feeling, won bronze with 75.043 percent. Pearson has nine gold medals to his name, having won the dressage, freestyle dressage and team dressage golds at the Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 Games. Pearson has two more chances to win gold when the team test results are collated Sunday, and when he competes in the individual freestyle test Monday. As tennis' elite ply their trade at the US Open, a few may be casting envious glances at Dutch Paralympian Esther Vergeer who notched a 466th consecutive victory in the first round of the wheelchair competition at the London Games Saturday. The Dutch athlete has not lost a singles match since 2003, has won 42 singles and doubles Grand Slam titles and began the defense of the gold medal she won in Beijing four years ago with a 6-0, 6-0 victory against Japan's Kanako Domori. Reigning Paralympic S6 400m freestyle champion Ellie Simmonds held off Victoria Arlen to retain her title, after controversy about the US swim queen's eligibility in the race. Britain's Simmonds, 17, touched home first in 5mins 19.17secs, smashing Arlen's world best by more than five seconds, as the two swimmers battled it out head-to-head for 350m of the race. But Simmonds was too strong for Arlen, as she turned the screw in the final 50m and pulled away. Arlen, 17, finished in 5mins 20.18secs while bronze was taken by Song Lingling of China. — Agencie
